Is it responsible to buy a house right after graduating college?

[Anonymous]

I’ll be graduating college in May, and I’m wondering if it would be more beneficial for me to buy a house instead of renting an apartment or (even worse) moving back in with my parents.

First, a little background:
I’m graduating with a BA degree in Political Science (though I also attended another college for health-related professions and I do have experience in the medical field). I was originally planning on going to graduate school for speech-language pathology, but I just had major ankle surgery last week and thus will not be healed in time to begin classes in the summer. I do, however, plan to return to school with a slight change in focus — probably public health or an MBA, depending on the job I ultimately get.

As of right now, I plan to apply to jobs as a clinical research coordinator/associate. Assuming I get the job that I want, I’ll be making $ 45-50,000/year. I’d be working in a major city (about an hour away from my current home) and thus I will need to move closer for work. I’ve considered apartments, condos, and houses. First, let me tell you that I am not the typical college student in that I am very fortunate to have a trust fund. Should I use this money to put a down payment on a house? I’m excellent at budgeting my money and I don’t intend to buy myself some extravagant $ 3 million dollar mansion. Rather, I’m setting my budget around $ 250-300k, which I believe is reasonable. I will also be moving in with my boyfriend (and soon-to-be fiancee) — and trust me, we’ve talked about this a LOT. We know we’re young, but we are getting married eventually; we’ve known each other since we were 11 years old and we’ve been dating for about 2 years now, so we’re not rushing into anything. So, he’ll also have a job that will land him a similar salary ($ 45-50k/year) to start.

So, would it be better to get an apartment, condo, or house? We need to live close to a city and we would most likely commute in via the subway, but we would like to keep our cars for emergency purposes. Obviously, I’ll also meet with a financial advisor about this too because I realize it’s a major decision, but I just wanted to get some initial ideas. Thanks!! 🙂
Also, I should add that apartment rentals near where we would like to work are approximately $ 2200/month, which is more expensive than a mortgage payment would be on a 4bed/2bath house slightly outside the city.

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